I Can't Promise to Stay
by NerdieGirl26
Summary: She was a normal girl until she was yanked out of her universe and into the one of her favorite anime, Fullmetal Alchemist. Now she doesn't know anything at all. Who is she? Why is she there? And why are the Homunculi after her? The only thing she knows is that the only way to get answers is to follow the Elric Brothers. Can Ed help her find where she belongs? Ed/OC
1. 1: Bad Day

I recently got really into Fullmetal Alchemist after my brother forced me to watch Conqueror of Shamballah with him and I just had to write a fanfiction for it. So this will be my first Fullmetal Alchemist fanfiction ever, for a show I just recently got into, so I'm going to do my best to do the show justice. This will be set in Brotherhood since that's the one I'm watching right now and the only once I've seen so far. Many thanks to the fantastic StarryDreamer813 for all her amazing help with this. Anyway, read on and please review! Reviews keep me writing so if you like then leave me a review!

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist, though it would be awesome as hell if I did, but I do own my OC and anything else original.

Chapter 1

Bad Day

"Miss Sinclaire?"

The second that grating voice pierce my thoughts, the decent dream I had been having dissipated as quickly as it had come on. Instantly I was annoyed. I didn't have good dreams very often. Go away, stupid voice, I needed more sleep.

"Ahem, Miss Sinclaire."

Slowly returning to consciousness, I recognized the voice as my chemistry teacher, Mr. Dinkleburg. Crap, I must have fallen asleep in his class again. This wouldn't end well for me. Oh well, it couldn't be helped. I was already asleep. Maybe Dinks would realize how futile his attempts were and leave me alone for once.

The loud slam of a textbook on the desk next to my head told me otherwise. Jolting up in my seat, the class instantly burst out into laughter while the bald, overweight chemistry teacher glared down at me from where he stood next to me. "Nice of you to join us, Novae."

Let me introduce myself. My name is Novae Sinclaire and I'm a 15 year old sophomore student at the Rockleigh High School in New Jersey. Or, at least, I was a student there. I say was because I'm no longer a student there. Hell, I'm not even a member of that universe anymore. But I'll get to that. As for my name… Yeah, it's a little strange. I don't expect you to know how to pronounce it so let me help you out: No-Vy-A. Just like that, folks. Still too complicated for you? I'm not surprised. Most people screw it up anyway, pronouncing it like No-Vay like Dinks here, so I just tell people to call me Nova. But that's not the important part. I was just an ordinary girl living a crappy ordinary life, until that day: June 10th, 2013. It was a Monday so I should have assumed right off the bat something terrible was going to happen.

That was the Monday I died.

It was also the Monday that I didn't die.

Confused? That's okay. I was too at first. Let me tell you a story about a girl who didn't belong anywhere.

The way that he pronounced my name always made me want to punch him in the face. Just because he didn't like me didn't give him the right to cut a syllable out of my name. It was three syllables, ass hat, get it right. No-Vy-A. It was impossible that it was simply bad pronunciation because I had been in his joke of a class for nine months.

I recouped, angry at myself for letting him get the best of me with his stupid textbook. "Any closer to my head, Dinks, and you could have killed me. At least it would have gotten me out of class. You know, I thought I was having a nightmare about being stuck in the shittiest chemistry class in the world. But you woke me up and now I realize it wasn't a nightmare; it was real life." I had to hide a grin as his round face turned bright red, like it always did when he was talking to me. "Why the hell did you wake me up, Dinks?"

To be honest, I was never really sure why he bothered to wake me up, or bother with me at all even. I was too smart for his class. Hell, I was too smart for all of my classes but I was just too lazy to do the work to get me into higher classes. I could sleep through every lesson of chemistry if I wanted to and still be able to pass every quiz, test, and exam he handed out. You would think the man would be smart enough to just let me sleep instead of watching his authority in class wane ever slightly more every time he couldn't win against me.

He pointed a stubby finger at the board where he had written some pathetic, mundane chemistry question. No doubt he had woken me up to surprise me with it and watch me fail. "Answer the question, Miss Sinclaire, right now."

My eyes scanned the question in a second and I leaned back in my chair, a smug look set on my face. "Which term is used to describe the amount of heat generated in a substance? What, no multiple choice options?" I said the last part like I was actually concerned about what answer I would give, as if I didn't know what the right answer was. A look of satisfaction crossed his stupid mug briefly, but quickly melted back into rage when I continued to speak. "Enthalpy." And just to be mean, I kept going. "Fun fact, Dinkeroo, Enthalpy comes from the Greek word _enthalpein_, which means 'to warm in.' And the symbol for Enthalpy is H."

This was where he began to stutter. Sometimes I swore you could actually see smoke coming from his ears. I had never bothered to take my books out of my bag so I simply slip my backpack strap over my shoulder as I began to stand up. "Come on, ass hat, face facts. I'm too smart for you."

I knew what was coming, but I also knew it would take him another five minutes to stop stuttering like a fool and actual say the five words I was so used to hearing. Stepping away from my desk, I walked towards the front of the class and to the door. "I know, I know. Go to the principal's office."

I was about to close the classroom door behind me when I heard him, having regained his composure enough to talk normally, grumble, "What a worthless fool. I won't be surprised if she winds up dead in the middle of the street one day."

If only I had known then how right he really was.

~(o_o)~

Of course, the principal's office was on the other side of the school so I at least got to enjoy a nice little walk from Dinkleburg's room. I saw the principal a lot (surprise, surprise) so I was on pretty good terms with him and his office staff. "Hey, Karen," I greeted the principal's secretary as I walked into the room.

She was just hanging up the phone on her desk when she saw me. She gave me a small smile, but there was no look of surprise on her face. She had probably just gotten off the phone with Dinkleburg, telling her that I was nothing but a worthless delinquent. Not that I expected her to be surprised when I showed up anymore. "Good morning, Nova. In trouble again, are we?"

"Me? In trouble? Why would you ever think that? I just came by to say hi to my friend Jack." I dropped my backpack on the floor at the side of her desk as I usually did when I came here.

"How's your sister?" Karen was one of the very few people at school I could stand because she was genuinely kind. She wasn't like _some_ people I could mention that pretended to be nice and were really giant assholes. No matter how many times a week I came in here, Karen always had a kind word for me and would ask me about my family. She never tried to lecture me about my choices like everyone else did and, for that, I liked her. "She's nine now, right?"

I smiled, which was rare for me when I wasn't at home. "Yeah, but she'll be ten in September. She's so excited. It's going to be her first slumber party with more than one girl." Deciding it was time that I go and face the big man, I nodded at the door that led into the principal's small office. "Is he free?"

"Yep. You can head right on in."

I figured he knew I was coming so I didn't bother to knock before opening his door and striding into his office. He barely glanced up from some paperwork on his desk as I followed my standard routine of plopping down sideways in the chair in front of his desk, laying my legs over the arm of the chair. "'Sup, Jack? Long time no see."

"Long time? Nova, I just saw you on Friday." He placed his paperwork into a folder on his desk and took his reading glasses off so he could see me better. "How many times do I have to tell you to call me Principal Cohen? It makes me look bad when a student feels like they can call me by my first name."

"You call me by my first name. But I hate it when people call me Miss Sinclaire so we're not doing that. Besides, no one's here so I don't think it matters. Unless you have cameras hidden in your office, which is more than a little creepy, Jack."

"Nova…" He sounded frustrated, and after only five minutes of me being in his office. I think that was a new record.

I couldn't be mad at the guy, though. He was one of the only people in school, besides Karen and roughly two other people, who called me Nova not because Novae was too annoying to pronounce but because I preferred it. And I liked to think that, although I was a student and he was the principal, we were friends in a weird sort of way. I mean, I saw him enough and I called him Jack.

"Why are you here, Nova?"

Ah, right to the point. Good old, Jack. "Why are you asking me? Shouldn't you know why already? What kind of principal are you?"

"The kind that puts up with this kind of nonsense too often for my health." Regardless of his words, there was a small smile on his face. It was a stern smile, but it was more than any of the teachers gave me. "Of course I know why you're here. But I would like to hear it from you."

I shifted in my seat to sit cross-legged, having to fidget a bit to get comfortable in my jeans. "Stupid Dinkleburg was on my case again."

"You were sleeping in his class again, Nova."

"It's not my fault his class is boring as hell. I don't know why I need to be awake when I know the stuff anyway. I answered his dumbass question."

"Yes, he did seem to be very upset that you were able to answer his high-level chemistry question right off the bat like that." I noticed he was chuckling slightly at the idea that a teacher would be upset about a student answering a question correctly, and I couldn't resist the temptation to join. We laughed for a good two minutes before he cleared his throat and clasped his hands together. He was in principal mode now. "The point is, Nova, that this is high school. The teachers are the authority in the classroom and they expect their students to follow the rules they set. _I_ expect you to follow the rules they set. Maybe if you didn't sleep through the majority of your classes and tried to be nice to your teachers instead of arguing and contradicting everything they say and do, you wouldn't have to see me all the time."

"But seeing you is the best part of the day!" I feebly tried to argue with a grin.

"I know you don't much like authority, and I get it. I really do. But your current teachers are complaining that you're a menace and it's proving difficult to find teachers who are willing to have you in their class next year. "

I was beginning to get a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. Was this going where I think it was? "What are you trying to say, Jack?"

I could tell by his face that he didn't want to say those next words. "Nova, I'm afraid if you can't shape up then I'll have no choice but to expel you."

Suddenly it felt like the rug had been pulled out from under me. Expulsion? Had it really come to that? My attention was drawn back to him as he kept talking. "I don't want to see you for at least the rest of the week, otherwise…"

"Expelled. Yeah. I got it." Before he could say anything else, I bolted from the office.

~(o_o)~

I tried to behave the rest of the day, I really did. I wasn't able to get Jack's words out of my head. I had known Jack long enough, and been to see him often enough, to know when he was serious and he was serious about this. I knew that if I was sent to his office for a disciplinary problem again this week, I would no longer be a part of Rockleigh High School. And, while I didn't particularly care about this school or anyone in it really, I knew that being expelled was not an option for me. There weren't any other high schools in the area I could attend so being expelled would mean having to move. That was the main reason, I'm sure, that Jack had waited so long to give me the ultimatum. I couldn't care less how moving affected my workaholic mother, but moving would mean having to uproot my little sister, Amelia, and I couldn't do that to her. She had friends here and she was an introverted girl so she didn't make friends easily. Moving to a different school would only make things unnecessarily hard on her. I didn't want to be the reason for that.

The bell rung, signaling the start of enrichment period at the end of the day and also telling students who weren't in any clubs or activities, like me, to go home. Going home was all I wanted to do now. Home was where my video games and my anime were, and where I couldn't get expelled from school. At the moment, watching some Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood sounded really good to me. I had recently gotten hooked on the show so I wasn't very far, but the show was addicting and all I wanted to do recently was watch it.

I had just finished packing up my backpack when I heard my name being called by a familiar voice. "Nova!" Glancing to my side, I found Jamie running up the hall to join me.

Jamie was the one friend I had in this school, if you didn't count Karen and Jack and I was pretty sure you couldn't. She had shown an interest in being friends with me from the moment she moved to Rockleigh two years ago, which meant that she was instantly an outcast in the eyes of everyone else at school. I had never made an attempt to make friends and that, with my bad attitude, had earned me basically complete isolation from the other students. Everyone knew I was a freak and that I pretty much hated everyone who ever existed, so anyone who went out of their way to be friends with me was labeled the same. And, while she wasn't someone I would have picked to be friends with, I had to respect Jamie for sticking to her guns. We didn't interact much outside of school, but when we were able to see each other in school it was nice. At least I had someone to talk to.

"What happened today, Nov? I heard you didn't sleep through any of your classes after Dinkleburg." She was out of breath from running down the hall to catch up with me. I wasn't completely sure why she did that every day. You would think she would have figured out by now I wasn't going to leave without her. "That's rare."

"Jack gave me an ultimatum," I sighed. I didn't have the energy to act like it didn't bother me. Thankfully, she was familiar with how I referred to Principal Cohen so I didn't have to explain it. "Either shape up and stop getting sent to him every day or I'm out of here." I shifted a book that wouldn't fit in my backpack from one arm to the other.

Out of nowhere, a tan hand knocked my book from my hands. "Did I hear you right, Sinclaire? You're going to get expelled? Miracles _do _happen!" I stared at the book on the floor for a brief second before looking up to meet the color contact eyes of Amber McGuire.

I hadn't seen her there. If I had, I would never have told Jamie about my conversation with the principal. Amber had hated me since the day she met me. I wasn't really sure why. I think it was because when we were young, she had tried to be friends with me but I told her no. She didn't take rejection well. She used any opportunity she could get to get me in trouble. "What do you want, Amber?" There was so much more I wanted to say to her but I couldn't let her get me expelled. If I was going to get kicked out of school, it would be on my own accord and not because some prissy bitch had her thong all in a bunch.

"Nothing," the sheer hatred she felt towards me was obvious in the sneer on her face. "I just think it's nice that finally Principal Cohen is doing something about the worthless dirt in our school."

A small jab at her wouldn't get me in trouble, and then I could be on my not-so-merry way. "The only one who's worthless here is you, Amber. At least I don't have to dye my hair and change my eye color to feel good about myself." It wasn't entirely true. I hated myself, as I was sure she hated herself, but at least I didn't expect a change in appearance to fix my issues.

I picked up my book and went to walk by her, only to have her knock it out of my hands again in her rage. Getting a little peeved, I looked at her, waiting for her to say whatever it was that she thought would make herself look bigger than me. Behind me, I could hear Jamie telling me to let things go and go home.

Amber stood in front of me, her spray-tanned little hands posted on her anorexic hips, with her cheeks tinged red from anger. That was how she usually looked when she talked to me. "You're such a freak, Sinclaire. Why don't you hurry up and do something stupid so they can finally kick you out of our school. You don't belong here. No one wants you here. No one wants you at all. Even your father left you because he thought you were worthless. So why don't you just leave and never come back?"

Something inside me snapped. The next thing I knew, my fist was in her face and she was sprawled on the ground with a bleeding nose. I looked from my slightly bloody fist back down to her, and I deflated. I had just punched her in the face. My fist hit Amber McGuire in the face. It was something I had been wanting to do for a long time, but to have actually done it was a whole different story. Rockleigh High School had a zero tolerance for violence, even violence that was justified like mine so entirely was. That was it. That was the last straw for me. Jack would hear about it and he would have to expel me. It was such a bad day.

I didn't even wait for anyone to reprimand me or take me to the principal. I knew what was going to happen, and I'm sure most of the people looking at me did, too. So I did the only thing I could: I walked away. I left my textbook on the ground, after all I wouldn't need it anymore, and walked out of the school without looking back.

I walked home, ten blocks, in complete silence. Jamie didn't even try to walk with me like she did every day. At home, in our two story colonial house, I found myself completely alone. I wasn't surprised. Amy didn't get out of school for another twenty minutes and then she was spending the afternoon at a friend's house. Mom was never home since she traveled all the time for her work. We didn't have any pets because Mom hated cats and Amy was allergic to dogs.

I threw my stuff down on the couch and took out my 3DS, hoping that some video game violence would cheer me up a little. I wasn't even in the mood to watch Fullmetal Alchemist anymore. I played Pokemon for roughly two hours, but it didn't help at all. Amy still wouldn't be home for another couple hours, so I decided to get my bike and go for a ride. I was a fan of exercise and my favorite thing to do was run, but biking came up a close second. At that moment, running just wasn't appealing to me.

Deciding to forego the helmet because I hated the way it made my head all sweaty, I hopped on my bike and took off. Biking always helped me think better, and all I could think about was Amy. What was I going to tell my kid sister? How could I explain to her that we were going to have to move because I screwed up and got kicked out of school? I couldn't. I couldn't tell her that she was going to have to abandon the couple of friends she had struggled to make because her big sister was incompetent. That's right. I was her big sister. I was supposed to protect her and make her happy, and I had officially ruined all of that. Some big sister I was. I just wished there was a way that I could make it all go away.

I slowed my bike to a stop at a crosswalk, waiting for the light to change so I could cross. It seemed like forever when the red light to cross finally turned green. I put my feet back on the pedals and began making my way across the crosswalk.

I was almost all the way across when I heard something snap and I went down. The bike toppled over, sending me crashing down on the road. "That fucking hurt," I grumbled as I began to pick myself up and dust myself off. Glancing down at my bike, I found the culprit. The bike chain had broken. Joy.

A car horn honked, grabbing my attention away from the bike. Looking up, I saw headlights coming at me.

"Bad day."

* * *

I'm so excited to have the first chapter up! :D Reviews please if you liked it! I know this chapter was all about Novae but I promise things start getting interesting in the next chapter. Did I mention that you should review? Review if you like! Review if you don't like (though I hope that you liked it)! Review just to say Hey, I read your thing! Chapter 2 hopefully isn't too many days away. See you next time!


	2. 2: Just Let Me Sleep Already

I hope you all liked chapter 1! Thanks to everyone who followed the story so far. Special thanks to StarryDreamer813 for all her help with this and for reviewing as well! This might be some shameless advertising for my friend, but her story I Want You to Be Happy is fantastic and you should check it out if you haven't already. Anyway, I'm hoping to have this story on a good schedule and update at least one every two weeks at the very least. I'm in college right now and this semester is kicking my butt but I'm going to work on this in my spare time so please bear with me. Like I said, this chapter is going to get far more interesting than the last one. Don't forget to review! I'm not going to threaten to withhold chapters until I get reviews or anything like that, but reviews let me know that people like it and they want to read more, and it gives me your thoughts on how the story is going so far, so please review. I'm going to stop talking now so onward!

**Disclaimer:** I wish I owned Ed. I wish I owned Fullmetal Alchemist specifically, but mostly Ed because he's adorable. However, I don't own any of that! Sad face. But I do own Novae, and the original storyline surrounding her.

Ed's. Curious. Kitten : Thanks for reviewing! And maybe one of them did! After all, Dinkleburg basically predicted her death. The world may never know!

Chapter 2

Just Let Me Sleep Already

Everything hurt. My arms hurt, my legs hurt, my stomach hurt, my face hurt… Hell, even my insides hurt. I felt like I had been hit by Mack truck, or at least had a million Hess trucks dumped on me. _Everything_ hurt.

"Ow." It even hurt to speak. What had happened to me? The last time I felt like this was when I fell down two flights of stairs at the museum when I was six. Dad had taken us to the museum as soon as Amy was able to leave the house after being born, because Mom had been a paranoid freak and was worried if she left the house she would die, and I tripped going down one set of stairs. Then I tried to get up and ended up falling down the next set of stairs. Dad didn't want to call an ambulance, especially since the hospital was only a block away from the museum, so he carried me to the hospital instead.

Dad…

Focus, Nova. Wherever I was, I could tell it was bright. I could sense the brightness behind my closed eyelids. I should probably open my eyes and figure out where I was. Slowly and with a bit of pain, I forced my eyes to open, wincing at the immense brightness of the room. The ceiling, I assumed it was the ceiling, was whiter than snow and as luminescent as the sun. I resisted the urge to close my eyes again. Sleep sounded good right now. I was so tired.

Was I in the hospital? It was the only place I could think of that would be so white. I had to be in the hospital. But why? I hurt all over, so I guess that was a good reason to be in the hospital. What had put me there?

Starting to come to my senses, I could feel something on my face. It was warm, and it felt a little slimy. It felt like someone had licked me. Ew. I brought a throbbing arm up and put a hand to my face, feeling the gooey whatever on my fingers. For a moment, I hesitated, frightened of what I might see. Then I let out the breath I'd been holding. How bad could it be? I pulled my hand away from my face to see it.

Blood covered my hand. The dark crimson liquid dripped from my fingers down my hand and wrist. That was when I noticed my arm was covered in bruises and scratches, bleeding just the same. I was bleeding. But _why_?

Suddenly it all came rushing back at me. _A car horn honked, grabbing my attention away from the bike. Looking up, I saw headlights coming at me._ I had been crossing the street when my bike chain broke and I fell in the road. Then a car hit me.

"You're dead."

The voice startled me and I gasped. I hadn't realized there was anyone else in here with me. It made sense. If I was in a hospital, there would be nurses or doctors around.

I turned my head to look at the owner of the voice, but I couldn't believe who I saw. Rather, _what_ I saw. A few feet away from me sat a white form, surrounded by a gray shadow that distinguished it from the white area around it. And it looked like me. It didn't have any facial features, but the shape of the body and its face… I could tell it was me. "Hello, Novae Sinclaire."

"Truth." I knew him, or was he an it? Was it an it? Not the point.

It couldn't be Truth. Truth wasn't real. Truth was a character from Fullmetal Alchemist, which was an anime. I must be dreaming. That was the only explanation. Truth couldn't actually exist. I found myself voicing my thoughts to it. "You can't be real. You're just a character in an anime." I had always thought of Truth being male, but seeing it with _my_ female shape disturbed me and threw me off.

"It was a manga first." Great, so Truth was a sarcastic little jerk, too. Its voice tried to mimic mine, but came off sounding younger than me in a grating but eerie sort of tone. I could hear its voice not only in my ears, but resounding through my head. It was painful, in a way, but, more than that, it was annoying. "But I am plenty real, little Nova."

I wasn't sure why, but something inside me was telling me to believe him. Okay, if I accepted that, then it meant that I was sitting in front of Truth. Technically, then, I was sitting in front of God, which was really annoying because I didn't believe in God. And God had just called me little. "Don't call me little, jackass." If Truth was real, that meant the gate had to be as well. Sitting up, I looked to my other side. Sure enough, the large gray stone gate, alchemical nonsense and all written on it, stood several feet in that direction.

Truth grinned at me, sending shivers down my spine. "Your bravado is impressive, angry little rebel child, but false. You can't push me away with your nasty words and pretend bravery." I narrowed my eyes at Truth, feeling my frustration with it building. What Truth said next sapped my anger and surprised me. "There are many different universes, Novae. It is rare that one ever knows about them, but there exist millions of parallel universes, all separated by a thin layer. In one universe, animals might rule the world while humans are deemed their pets. In another, women might be in charge instead of men. Your universe was a place where I was simply a character in a manga and some animes, and were you didn't belong. Why do you think you've always felt like you didn't belong anywhere? Why you were always an outcast? Why you were never happy no matter what you did? Why, Nova, did you always hate your life and hate yourself even more?"

My breath caught in my throat before I could argue with it. I didn't have a reason, an answer, a why. I could never explain it to myself why I hated everything and everyone, why I never felt like I belonged anywhere. I never had a reason why I was like that.

Something clicked in the back of my mind from earlier all of a sudden. Something Truth had said that didn't process right away. "Did you… Did you say I was dead?"

Truth's grin was gone. "I did. And it's true. You are dead. You fell in the middle of the road and were hit by a drunk driver who swerved around the corner too fast. If the trauma to your head hadn't been so severe, you could have survived with a broken rib, fractured arm, and a concussion. But you died almost instantly."

The breath I had apparently been holding rushed out of me, leaving me feeling deflated and cold. Strangely, I could sense a small part of me that was… relieved. Being dead meant that I could stop pretending to be happy and stop acting like I cared about things I hated, which was basically everything. I also couldn't get expelled if I was dead. But a larger part of me was unhappy and concerned. Dying meant I had left my sister behind. I was the one who looked after Amy, who took care of her because our mother was absent 99% of the time, traveling around for the work she'd thrown herself into because she couldn't cope with reality. Without me to take care of her, what would happen to her? Would our mother find some scary nanny to take care of her, who didn't get who Amy was like I did? Or would Mom have no choice but to stop traveling and attempt to start caring for her only child. More than likely, that would turn out for the worst. No matter the case, my death meant that Amy wouldn't have me anymore. I had no chance to say goodbye to her, to tell her how much I loved her. I would just be another person who had disappeared from her life without a word.

"I can't be dead!" I found myself yelling all of a sudden. My throat tightened and I coughed, trying to force the urge to cry back. I wasn't a person who cried. "You have to send me back. I have to go back to Amy. I can't leave her alone. I'm all she has. She needs me!"

"She needs an older sister who couldn't even reign in her temper enough to keep from getting expelled?" Truth's words weren't harsh or cold, they were just… a question. Truth, whatever proper noun it was, was right. I knew that if I got in trouble with Principal Cohen again, I would be expelled. I could have kept my temper in check if I really tried, _should _have, but I didn't. I punched Amber in the face and I got myself expelled. I was going to ruin my sister's life because of it, but I died before I could do that. Was she better off? Sure, she would hurt for a long time, but maybe she would be better off in the long run without me around to screw everything up.

"I can change." The words were so simple, but I believed them. "I can change into the big sister she needs me to be, that she deserves. Just… send me back. Please."

Truth sighed, which I thought was strange because it had never really shown emotions before that I had noticed. "I can't do that, Nova. I can't send you back. I can bring you back to life, but I can't send you back to the universe you died in. You don't belong there."

"Why not?" Any hope I had harbored for those few minutes died instantly. "What do you mean?"

"There's a reason you always felt like you did. I can't give you any specifics, but you were never meant to be in that universe. And then you died there, really died, so the only way I can send you back to that world is as the corpse that you are there now."

I was never meant to be there? "I don't understand, Truth. How could I live in a universe I wasn't supposed to be in?"

"Didn't I just tell you that I can't give you any specifics? It's simple to understand really. You're dead there now. I can't send you back. If you want to keep living, you'll have to go somewhere else. The question is, little lion, do you want to live?"

I wasn't expecting to be given a choice in the matter, so the question sent me reeling. Did I want to live? I couldn't go back to Amy, apparently, so where else would I go? A different universe? Would he send me to that one with the people pets? If that was the case, maybe I didn't want to live.

Could I say that? Could I reject the offer to come back to life? Truth had given me the option, and saying no was part of that option. Did I deserve to continue living? I hadn't been doing real great so far.

"_Mommy? Where's Daddy gone?"_

"_What a worthless fool."_

"_You're such a freak, Sinclaire."_

"_Stupid Dinkleburg was on my case again."_

"_It's proving difficult to find teachers who want you in their class next year."_

"_I'll have no choice but to expel you."_

"_Why do you work so much, Mommy? Don't you love us?"_

"_I won't be surprised if she winds up dead in the street one day."_

"_You don't belong here. No one wants you here. No one wants you at all. Even your father left you because he thought you were worthless. So why don't you just leave and never come back?"_

"_Nova, you're the best big sister in the world. I love you!"_

"_Play Monopoly with me, Nova! I'll even let you win!"_

"_Can you help me with my homework, sis? You're so smart."_

"_So what if Mom doesn't want to be here? I have you. That's all that matters."_

"No." If Truth had a face, I imagined it would look surprised. "I don't want to live. If I can't be with Amy, then there's no point. She was the only reason I ever had for sticking around, and she's the only reason I have to come back to life. So, no, Truth, I don't want to keep living."

"Huh. Have to say, I wasn't expecting that." Truth stood up, casting its shadow over me as it looked down on me. "I know I made it sound like you had a choice in the matter, but you actually don't. I might be God, but even I have rules to follow." Then why was I offered a decision, if it was just going to be taken from me? "You have to die in the world you belong to. Dying where you don't belong is a cop out, and you get sucked back to the universe you originated from."

Angry now, I stood up as well. "Don't offer choices you don't plan on accepting! I would rather die than be stuck somewhere else where I'm just going to end up feeling the same way I've always felt!"

"Now _that_ is your choice. You don't have a say in whether or not I bring you back to life in a different universe than the one you're used to, but whether you live or die there is up to you. If you were to jump off a bridge in this universe, I couldn't stop you from truly dying. But before you go attempt to fly, remember this: just because I can't send you back to the universe with your Amy doesn't mean you can't find means of your own to go back. There are doors, more than you or anyone else realizes, between the worlds. If you can find one, you're free to go back to your old life, though I can't help you explain to people why you've risen from the dead."

Truth lifted its wrist, staring at it like one would a watch, and then it grinned at me again. "Time's up, little lion. Live or die, it's all up to you now."

Before I could ask Truth what it meant, I heard a loud bang. I knew what it was, but I turned around anyway. The gate doors had been thrown open, revealing the black void inside of it. In another second, a thousand black shadowy arms shot out from the void at me. They wrapped themselves around me, dragging me backwards into the gate. I managed to cast one last glance at Truth, waving goodbye to me with that creepy grin on its face, before the gate closed.

For a brief second, I felt myself begin to panic. I hated the darkness. But, seconds later, everything lit up. Pictures appeared like film strips in the air around me; some I recognized from my life, some I recognized from Fullmetal Alchemist, and some I didn't recognize at all. I vaguely remembered this part from the show when Ed went through it. As soon as I glimpsed one image, it was gone and then next one was filling my mind. My head felt like it was going to explode. Everything was flying by so fast I couldn't make sense of anything I was seeing. Just when I thought my head was going to burst from everything being shoved inside of it and from the pain, everything went black.

~(o_o)~

I landed somewhere with a hard thud and a groan, or at least I think I groaned. On the bright side, my head no longer felt like it was going to pop from whatever the hell it was that was being shoved in my head in the gate. On the not so awesome side, my little adventure through that asshole's gate had only made everything hurt more. And I was exhausted. Sleep sounded really good right now.

I briefly wondered where I was. Truth had said I was going to be sent somewhere else, but it had never said where. I really hoped it hadn't sent me to some bizarre universe where bunnies ruled the world or something. Amy would probably love that world. Bunnies weirded me out, though. They looked cute, but they were demons with their stupid long ears and scrunched up evil noses.

But I was too damn tired to care where I was or what I was sitting on. It was dark wherever I was stuck, and it wasn't the most comfortable place but it definitely wasn't the worst. At the moment, all I cared about was how much pain I was in and how much sleep I could get before someone else bothered me. Deciding it was more worth my while to leave my eyes closed, I let my head droop forward a little and resigned myself to taking a nap before something else happened to me.

"No, Brother!"

A voice snapped me out of my almost slumber. Somewhere in the back of my mind, the voice pinged a familiar note but I couldn't recognize it in my current stupor. "You should run!"

"Idiot! How can I leave you behind and run?"

A second voice, also ringing as someone I knew. Why did I know these voices, and who were they? Did Truth actually send me back to my universe? I had never been to another universe, so it was impossible that I could recognize voices from one.

"So you transmute by placing your hands together and forming a circle."

There was a third person there, too. They were all talking, more like yelling, at each other. Their voices hurt my ears, sounding like a thousand nails on chalkboards inside my head. Shut up. Stop talking. I just wanted to sleep.

"Brother!"

If they weren't going to shut up, then I would have to make them shut up. Opening my eyes, I found my vision blurry but intact enough to figure out what I was looking at. There were boxes in my face, and I was pretty sure I was sitting in a box as well. Why was I sitting in a bunch of boxes?

"Fucking boxes…" I snorted. Using my hand to push myself off the box I was sitting in and my other hand to knock away the boxes in my face, I stood up. I wobbled more than a little, but I was up.

The first thing I noticed was a giant gray form with eyes staring at me. Through my blurred vision, it looked like a suit of armor but I couldn't be sure. "Brother, there's a girl here!"

The moment his voice hit my ears, the nails on a chalkboard feeling came back and I felt like I was going to vomit. "SHUT UP!"

My voice must have come out louder than I thought because everyone stopped talking. I looked up from the armor man, seeing two other people, one definitely blonde, both staring at me. The one that wasn't blonde spoke up. "What are you doing here, girl?"

It _was_ quiet. "Can everyone just shut up now?" I began grumbling, though I wasn't sure if I was at all coherent. Part of me wasn't even sure I was making human sounds. "All I want to do is sleep, and no one will shut up and let me! You're all so noisy you woke the dead, literally! Between Truth and death and now you people, I've had enough! Let me sleep!"

If I couldn't sleep here, I would just find somewhere else I could sleep. That meant I had to leave. I took a step forward, but suddenly everything started to spin. I couldn't feel my legs anymore, and I had a brief thought that I tripped on something.

I was barely aware of my face hitting the ground as everything faded around me.

* * *

I hope you can all figure out which universe she got dumped into :P I got this chapter up a bit faster than I had thought I would. Yay me! Don't forget to review, my lovelies! I'm not sure when I'll have the next chapter up, but I'm hoping by the end of the weekend (as long as the massive amounts of homework I have to do along with it don't kill me first). Next chapter she actually gets to meet everyone, so look forward to it! Reviews are awesome so leave me some!


	3. 3: Strange New World

Hey everyone! Thanks to Ed's. Curious. Kitten, QueenoftheFanfiction, Jess, and AveryScarlet for reviewing. Special thanks as always to StarryDreamer 813 for all her help with this story and for reviewing all the time. Without her, I don't think this would work out as well. Okay, guys, I know I picked a really weird, oddball sort of name for my OC. Novae isn't a name you find very often so I'm really sorry if some of you are having trouble (AveryScarlet, I saw your review so I thought I would make a note to help everyone out. Thank you for pointing out that you're having trouble with her name because I'm sure other people are, too.) I actually stole the name Novae from a video game that I played not too long ago, called Xenosaga (though it's specifically from the 3rd game in the series). If anyone reading this is familiar with the series, then the name should be very familiar. If not, then it is easily found on Youtube. If you look up the Xenosaga Episode 3 Walkthrough Part 12: Unauthorized Entry by Soloknight on Youtube, starting at about 12:30 through the video, you can hear someone announcing Omega Res Novae over the loudspeaker. How they pronounce the Novae is how my Novae pronounces her name (like No-Vy-A, but I'm bad with phonetically spelling things so I might be off the mark :P). But that's how it's pronounced. I'll also post this information on my profile with the information about the story so if need be you can find it there, too.

Don't scroll down yet! On a side note, it recently came to my attention that I accidentally made the title of this story (A Place to Belong) extremely similar to another story here in the FMA fandom (which is also one of these alternate universe girl gets sucked into the fandom universe kind of story). I didn't do it on purpose and if it had occurred to me that there was a title like that already out there, I wouldn't have gone with it. I apologized to the author of that story already for it but I'm changing the title to I Can't Promise to Stay, and I'll make a note of that on my profile too in case of any confusion. I'm going to stop talking now and get to the chapter, so don't forget to review!

Chapter 3

Strange New World

-Ed-

_She's suspicious_, Ed thought to himself as he stared at the girl lying on the hospital bed.

Only three hours ago he had been locked in a fight with Scar, a fight the girl before him had interrupted when she suddenly appeared in the alley shouting at them to shut up. She had been badly injured so, after he and Al had been rescued by Colonel Roy Mustang and his soldiers, they had taken her to the hospital. Now, they were sitting in the girl's room waiting for her to wake up. Unfortunately, the doctor who had examined her said she had a bad concussion so no one was sure how long it would take for her to wake. And all Ed wanted to do was hop a train back to Resembool so he and Al could get fixed up. He was missing his automail arm that Scar had destroyed, and Al was stuck in a box because part of his body was gone. On top of that, they were saddled with Major Armstrong as their body guard since they were in no condition to fight if Scar came back for them, though the large man was out of the room at the time. Ed didn't like to feel this weak and helpless, but they couldn't do anything about it until this girl woke up.

She was definitely strange, though. Strange and suspicious. For starters, what was she even doing in that alley and why was she so badly beaten up? And where had she come from? He was almost certain that she hadn't been in that alley to begin with, but he couldn't be sure. What he found the most bizarre, though, was that he heard her mention Truth before she passed out. Truth was the being, or God as it had called itself, that he had seen when he and Al had tried to perform human transmutation as children. Maybe it was a fluke or a slip of the tongue in her dazed state, but she had specifically mentioned Truth as being one of her problems. While he couldn't be positive that she meant the same thing he was thinking of, it only made her more suspicious to him.

Then there was the way she looked and the way she had been dressed. Her skin was fair in what looked like an ivory sort of shade, but had become pale from the blood she had lost through all of her injuries. Her hair was raven black and as long as her waist with bangs that covered her forehead, but it was tangled and the ends were caked with her blood. There were two earrings in each of her ears, and one in the side of her nose. Even Winry had pierced her ears, but he had never seen anyone with a nose piercing before. Her eyes bothered him as well. He had only seen them briefly before she passed out during his fight, but they were a vibrant green color, almost like emeralds. He hadn't met many people in Amestris with green eyes. In fact, the only person he had met with green eyes was Fuhrer King Bradley. Even stranger than her looks was her clothing. She was wearing a hospital gown now because her clothes had been cut up and covered in blood, but he hadn't been able to recognize the type of clothing she had been wearing at all. Her pants were a strange blue fabric he had never seen before, with large holes put in the knees and various other places, probably from whatever had injured her. Her blue shoes were also strange looking, with a label called "Converse" and a star next to it. She had also been wearing a white tank top, but over it she'd had a short-sleeved black shirt that was shorter than the tank top and had the word "Badass" written on it. There had also been a necklace around her neck, a silver chain with a crescent moon that had a silver star and a blue ball hanging off the bottom of it, but that was the least abnormal aspect of what she was wearing. Al, Major Armstrong, and even Mustang had agreed with him that they had never seen clothes like hers before. Were they a product of some strange foreign country, like Drachma or Xing? If that was the case, then what was she doing here?

Suspicious.

"What are you thinking, Brother?" Al's tinny voice asked, no doubt surprised by his brother's quietness.

Ed instantly voiced his concerns to his younger brother, only leaving out the part about her mentioning Truth. He had a strange feeling that she had meant the God-like figure he was thinking of, but he couldn't be sure until he was able to ask her and he wasn't sure what to make of it all, so he kept it to himself. "That's what I think, Al," he said once he had finished. "What do you think?"

"I agree that she's strange," Al said after a moment of thought. Ed was right about a lot of things, but he was also suspicious of a lot of people and most of those people turned out to be harmless. "But can't know anything for sure until we can ask her."

As if on cue, the girl emitted a groan and began to move. "Looks like this is our chance, Al."

~(o_o)~

-Novae-

It felt like I had been floating in an abyss, surrounded by utter darkness. I couldn't think, couldn't speak. I just… floated. It was nice. I wasn't sure how long it lasted before voices breached the abyss, yanking me out of my cozy slumber.

The first thing I was aware of was the pain. The dull throbbing and immense ache that filled my being hadn't gone away yet. Damn it, Truth, if you were going to ship me off to Narnia the least you could have done was make everything hurt less. The next time I saw that stupid white God freak I was going to put it in a world of pain. Could I do that? Guess I'd find out.

Back to the situation at hand, where was I this time? I was lying down, and I could tell I was on some sort of cushioned thing. It wasn't the most comfortable thing in the world, though, and I shifted slightly, trying to achieve even a small amount of comfort. Bad idea. The moment I moved pain shot through every fiber of my being. I heard myself groan. What I wouldn't give for a bucket full of Advil. "Getting real tired of your shit, pain."

"Then maybe you should stop collapsing in alleys."

Startled by the voice, my eyes flew open and I probably would have spazzed out if my body would function properly. I instantly looked in the direction of the voice and I had to stifle a scream. Much like the situation with Truth, I found familiar faces sitting only a few feet away from me. But this time I wasn't stuck staring at a creepy white blob. No, I found myself staring at the eyes of a Mister Edward Elric, golden eyes and all. Slightly to the right of him was a suit of armor in a large box. I instantly recognized Al's head, with his purple glowing eyes and the long white ribbon of hair.

This couldn't be happening. The Truth thing was strange, but this was just bizarre. If Truth wanted to be real, fine. There wasn't much I could say to God, if Truth even was really God (though personally it made me very happy to know that a bazillion Christians were wrong and that Jesus was rolling over in his fake grave), to dispute whether it was real or not. But this, no… This couldn't be real. Edward and Alphonse Elric were _fictional_ characters from a _fictional_ anime and manga. There was no way that this could be real. One character I could accept, but all of them? Nuh-uh. No way. No comprende.

I pinched my upper arm, though it took a considerable amount of effort in my exhausted pain-filled state, to convince myself this wasn't real. That's what people on television did when they were dreaming. And this had to be a dream because it wasn't possible that the real Edward and Alphonse Elric were sitting in my room.

Except pinching myself only succeeded in making my arm hurt more. I didn't magically wake up in my bedroom at home from a bizarre dream because I ate too many Pixie Stix before bed. I didn't wake up. Period.

And do you know what that meant? That meant I was seriously sitting in front of the real freaking Elric brothers. Holy fuck.

"Who are you?" I finally asked after what felt like an eternity. I was pretty sure if I stared at them like they had twelve heads for much longer, it would get weird. Not that it wasn't weird already but I don't think I could handle anymore weird. Part of me hoped that they would answer with different names, because then they could just be cosplayers and I could still be in my own world.

"My name is Alphonse Elric, and this is my brother Edward." Wrong again. I was pretty sure cosplayers would have given their own names. "What's your name?"

I had almost forgotten how sweet Al was. I'm sure Ed thought I was a demon or something similar, but Al treated me normally no matter how strange I must have seemed to them. "Novae Sinclaire." They seemed slightly taken back by my strange name, which was understandable, so I added, "But I mostly go by Nova."

Truth had said that there were a crazy number of universes out there, and the one I came from where Fullmetal Alchemist is an anime is only one of them. Going off of that, I suppose it was logical that a universe where Fullmetal Alchemist was real life existed. And since this all seemed to be real and happening, I was going to assume that Truth had shoved me here. But he had said something about how I had to go back to where I "belonged." Did that mean I belonged here? Ugh, this was all so confusing. If I was now living in FMA, which version was I in? They had made the two different animes, regular and Brotherhood. I had only seen a little bit of Brotherhood, enough to know the basics, and none of the original anime.

I remembered waking up in an alley, in a bunch of boxes, and seeing Al. Before I had passed out in the alley, I saw Ed and Scar. And, going off of Ed's missing arm and Al being stuck in a box, I remembered this part of Brotherhood. That meant I could be in the beginning of Brotherhood. But what if the original anime had the same thing? I would have to wait and see something that I recognized specifically as Brotherhood, or not Brotherhood, before I could figure that part out.

Damn it, Nova, stop spacing out. They're going to think you have brain damage or something. "Where am I?"

It wasn't actually hard to tell where I was. I had seen the hospitals in the show enough to know I was in one, and the gown I was wearing was a dead giveaway. Speaking of the gown, where were my clothes? They were probably destroyed from the car accident and my injuries and covered in blood, so I probably couldn't wear them again, which really sucked because I liked those clothes. Would they think my clothes were strange? I had never seen anyone in the show wearing jeans, which leads me to believe jeans didn't exist here. Maybe I could play them off as weird foreign clothes from Xing or somewhere.

Ed hadn't said much so far, but he had been giving me one of his suspicious looks that I recognized from the show. He definitely thought I was a criminal or something. I couldn't blame him for thinking I was suspicious. I kind of was. Al was still being extremely nice to me, though, and answered my question. "You're in a hospital in East City. How old are you?"

"Fifteen." I guess I was still in shock sort of so my responses kept coming out quiet and strange sounding. I wanted to say more, but I wasn't sure what I could say.

Ed spoke up suddenly, apparently not content letting Al do all the talking. "What happened to you? And why were you in that alley?"

I opened my mouth to answer, but I blanked. What was I supposed to say? I was pretty sure I couldn't come right out and say 'I'm from a different universe where I watch you on TV and then I died and now I'm here.' That was too farfetched, even for them, and I would most likely just end up in prison getting questioned 800 times a day. But I could lie. If I made it sound like I didn't know anything, no one would question why I wasn't familiar with this world. And then I couldn't run the risk of telling them anything about what was going to happen, and accidentally changing events. Lying was my only option, as far as I could tell. Had I been quiet long enough to make it seem believable? I thought so.

"I… I don't know…" I said, making my voice quiet and shaky. If I was going to act like an amnesiac, then I had to play the part. "I can't… I can't remember. I remember my name and my age, and I can remember waking up in the alley… But I can't remember anything else…"

"Oh, come on!" Ed's voice was a little loud, hurting my head a bit, and he looked at me in disbelief. He obviously didn't buy the amnesia card I had just laid out. "You expect me to believe that?"

"Stop it, Brother," Al immediately jumped in to defend me. "You don't know if she can remember or not. She did suffer a head injury so it's possible it made her lose her memories."

I decided not to say anything, for fear that I might come off as suspicious even more so than I already was. Ed was getting on my nerves a little bit, though, which is something I never thought I would say. Ed had been my favorite on the show, and I always thought he was a little cute. Now that I was seeing him in person, he was definitely cute. But he was acting like a jackass to a girl who was injured and couldn't remember anything. Okay, well that last part wasn't actually true but as far as he knew I couldn't remember anything, and he was treating me like a criminal. Some hero he was.

The door opened just then, and a large bald man with a singular blonde curl poking out over his forehead walked in. Major Armstrong! He had always made me laugh, and my favorite episodes were the ones he was in. "Oh, I see she's woken up." His voice was booming, just as I had imagined it would be in person. Though I was surprised he hadn't ripped his shirt off yet. "I am Major Alex Armstrong. I'm watching over the boys for the time being. How are you feeling?"

"Sore," I replied weakly, still trying to maintain the feeble girl façade. "I'm Novae, but you can call me Nova. It's nice to meet you." Hell yeah it was.

"She has amnesia," Al added in.

"That's not surprising," Armstrong nodded thoughtfully. It was nice that he believed it instantly. "The doctor did say she suffered a bad head injury and there could be some side effects like this. Don't fret, Nova! I'm sure you'll get your memory back!"

"If she even lost it," Ed scoffed from his chair. He apparently still didn't believe me.

And that was my last nerve. "Listen, shorty," I snapped. I was hoping they would think all the stress and everything accounted for my sudden crankiness. "You're not in my head! You don't know what I do and don't remember! So get off my case!"

And then it occurred to me that I shouldn't have called him short. Definitely not the way to win him over. "WHO DO YOU THINK YOU'RE CALLING SHORT? YOU'RE THE SHORT ONE!" He had jumped to his feet and was standing over me, looking down at me with a furious glare.

Did he just call _me_ short? "I AM NOT SHORT!" it was my turn to yell. I stood up as well with a huff and stared him in the eyes, which I noticed after a second were slightly higher than mine. Then I looked at the rest of him. Even without the stupid hair that stuck straight up, he was slightly taller than me. "Fucking hell, you're taller than me! This is so not okay!"

They seemed taken back a bit by my colorful language, but all I felt was tired now. The shock and the adrenaline had finally gone, leaving me with nothing but exhaustion and pain. Speaking of pain, I could feel a sharp one in my right side where my ribs were. I put a hand to my side and winced when the just the simple pressure caused the pain to spike.

I think Ed felt bad for causing me to get up and hurt myself, because he put a hand on my arm and gently pushed me back onto the bed. "The doctor said you have a fractured rib, to go along with a concussion," he explained in a softer voice than before.

Even though he was a jackass, he wasn't all bad. I had to get used to it if I was going to be stuck with him for awhile. Was I going to be stuck with him, stuck here? Truth had said I might be able to get back to my universe if I tried, but how long would that take? Would Amy be an adult by the time I could go back? Would she even recognize me or remember me? It was strange to think that I wouldn't have her jumping on me to wake me up every morning, or spilling the milk as she tried to get her own cereal. Who was going to pick her up from school every day and walk her home?

Thankfully, they saw my silence and gave me the space I needed as I took everything in. "I stepped out to call Colonel Mustang and tell him what was going on, but he wants to see us in his office to update him in person," Armstrong explained to the brothers.

Ed cast a glance over at me, but I didn't have the energy to get annoyed anymore. "He expects us to just leave this girl here? No, I'm not okay with that."

"We can't very well take her with us, Brother," Al argued in his typical way, protesting without being harsh about it. "She's hurt and in pain. It's better for her to stay here."

"Al's right, Ed. In her condition, I don't think she would be able to go very far even if she tried."

Holding my side because I knew it would hurt, I couldn't help but laugh a little bit. I was right. It hurt like a bitch. The three of them looked at me strangely. "The big guy is right. It hurts to breathe. There's no way in hell I'm going anywhere. Besides, I wouldn't know where to go since I don't remember anything about anything."

Ed watched me for a moment, probably looking for any signs of deceit, and finally he sighed. "Fine, we're going to leave to go meet with Colonel Mustang. We'll be back in a little bit. Don't go anywhere."

"Thanks for stating the obvious," I grumbled as Al and Armstrong said goodbye and the three of them left.

Now that they were gone, the emptiness of the room made me feel lonely, lonelier than I had ever felt. Knowing that my sister was in a completely different universe than I was took away any comfort I had. No matter how bad my day was, I knew I would feel better once I went home and saw Amy. I didn't have that anymore. In a sense, Al reminded me of her because he was sweet and innocent, but he wasn't her. I missed my sister. On the bright side, I no longer had to deal with Dinkleburg or Amber and I couldn't get expelled if I was dead, which meant that Amy wouldn't have to move because I got kicked out of school. Briefly, I wondered if Dinkleburg or Amber felt bad for being such assholes to me. I wouldn't be surprised if one of them had been driving the car that hit me. But on a different bright side, Ed was cute and Al was sweet so there were worse people I could be stuck dealing with.

All those pros weren't enough to outweigh the singular con, though: I had been forced to abandon Amy until I could find a way back to her.

But sitting around and moping about how sad I was wasn't going to get me back to her. I needed to get back on my feet as quickly as I could so I could figure out a way to return to my universe. That meant I couldn't wait around for my body to heal itself. I had to deal with the pain. For some reason, my gut was telling me that sticking with Ed and Al was the only way to find a way back, which made sense because this universe seemed to revolve around them for the most part. But they wouldn't wait around for an injured girl so she could travel with them. Going off my knowledge from the show, they were eager to get back to Resembool so they could get fixed up and get back to the search for the Philosopher's Stone. If I wasn't ready to go when they were, there was no chance of them letting me go with them.

Amongst all my thinking, nature's call suddenly hit me. There was a door at the end of the room that led to a bathroom. This was probably a good opportunity to clean myself up, since I was sure I was covered in blood and crap. And this was the perfect opportunity to start getting back on my feet. I had a decent pain threshold but, like any normal person, I didn't like pain. And this fractured rib was just pushing the limits of my threshold. I was just going to have to deal with it.

Forcing myself to my feet, I tried to breathe through the pain. Focusing on just making it to the bathroom made it a little easier. By the time I actually made it to the bathroom door, though, I was ready to collapse. Nope. Not gonna do that.

Once I had finished my business, I moved to the bathroom sink and looked at myself in the mirror. I looked disgusting. I had a bandage wrapped around my forehead where it had been cut open and I had blood dried onto my skin basically everywhere. My black hair was caked with dry blood as well and far from looking decent. I needed a shower, but I just didn't have the energy for that at the moment. Maybe later.

Turning the faucet on to fill the sink with warm water, I figured the best I could do was wash the blood off like this. As I waited for the sink to fill, I tried to relax. I was tense. Everything was so overwhelming and it was throwing my stress into overdrive. At home, what I would normally do to de-stress was scream into a pillow. It was freeing, being able to scream out your frustrations. But doing that here would get me unwanted attention from a bunch of doctors and nurses and possibly more suspicion from Ed. So I used the other technique I knew when I couldn't do the pillow thing: I counted backwards from 26. It was Amy's favorite number, and it gave me just enough time to calm down.

"26… 25… 24…" By the time I had gotten to one, I felt a little better. The sink had finished filling up and the steam from the water felt nice on my arms and face. Ready to get cleaned up, I clapped my hands together and placed them in the sink.

There was a spark of blue in the sink out of nowhere, and the water exploded. Shooting up to the ceiling and then out over the bathroom, the water erupted out of the sink.

I gave a little shriek as I fell backwards, slipping on the water that covered everything. Instantly my tailbone ached, pretty sure it was bruised, and pain shot through my rib. I was drenched, head to toe. None of that mattered. "What did I just do?" I wanted to yell. Why did everything seem to be getting progressively weird and worse? Water didn't just burst out of sinks like that. It might burst out of pipes, but not out of sinks. And what was that spark? It had reminded me of when Ed or Al do…

No. No, no, no, no, no. It couldn't be. I didn't belong in this world. I couldn't possibly be capable of… Was that alchemy? Did I just do alchemy?

~(o_o)~

-Ed-

"Good afternoon, Full Metal."

Ed gave the colonel a wave as he and Armstrong, who was carrying the box with Al on his shoulder, walked into the room. Armstrong set Al's box down on the floor in front of the desk. "Hey, Colonel, what do you want this time?"

"I just wanted an update on your situation before you leave for Resembool," Mustang explained as he set aside some paperwork on his desk and gave the trio in front of him his full attention. "How is the girl doing?"

Armstrong spoke before Ed or Al could, sounding sad about her predicament. "That poor girl! She's suffering from amnesia and can't remember anything except for her name and age!" Mustang looked at him expectantly, giving him the cue to go on. "Her name is Nova, and she's fifteen years old."

"Interesting name. That makes her around your age, Ed," Mustang noted. "She can't remember anything?"

"Nothing from before the alley," Al answered, also sounding concerned for the girl they had left at the hospital. "It makes sense, given her concussion."

"I don't know. I still think there's something off about her," Ed grumbled, annoyed that everyone was so eager to believe the girl couldn't remember anything. "I just think it's strange that she showed up in that specific alley, during the fight, and she's all beaten up from who knows what. And then she happens to conveniently have amnesia so she can't even tell us what happened to her. I just get a suspicious vibe from her."

"You know, Ed, if she hadn't interrupted your fight, you would probably be dead. She distracted Scar long enough to give us time to get to you, so you basically owe her your life." Ed shot Mustang a dirty look, to which Mustang only laughed. "But I see your point. As Al said, it makes sense for her to have amnesia because of her head injury, but she is suspicious. That's why I think she would be better off in your custody."

Ed immediately started to argue. "What? Why?"

"You want her to stay with us?" Al asked, confused. Ed was so obviously against this girl. Why would Mustang want them to keep an eye on her?

The Colonel was quiet for a moment, letting Ed get his yelling out. When Ed had calmed down, he continued to explain. "Full Metal, you obviously have your concerns. Honestly, it's easier for me to have her stay with you than to have you call me every day asking if anything has changed with her. If what she says is true, she can't remember where she lives or if she even has a family to go home to. The two of you do a lot of travelling, so you might wind up somewhere that is familiar to her, or find someone who knows her. Besides, finders keepers. You saw her first."

"What kind of logic is that, Colonel?" Ed grumbled, though he had to admit that what Mustang had said made sense. At least if the girl was with them, he could keep an eye on her and figure out exactly what was going on with her.

"I think it's a good idea." Ed looked at his brother, who simply shrugged. "Since we don't know how she got so injured, it's possible that whatever did that to her will come back for her. At least we could protect her."

Armstrong nodded with a smile. "I agree with Alphonse. Her concussion is most likely causing her amnesia, so it is probably temporary. At some point, it will come back to her. It will be helpful if we all know where she is, instead of letting her go and not knowing anything."

"Then it's settled." Mustang stood up with a grin, knowing that Ed wasn't happy about this. "The girl, Nova, will be placed into your custody. You are to report back to me if anything interesting happens, Full Metal."

Ed sighed, knowing that there was nothing else he could do. He shot a glare towards his brother and Armstrong. "Thanks for ganging up on me, guys."

~(o_o)~

-Novae-

The brothers had been gone for almost two hours. Since the incident with the bathroom sink, I had refused to go back in there. For about an hour and a half, I had been sitting on the hospital bed with my knees drawn up to my chin, which had been massively painful at first but had dulled to a slight ache since. And I was still damp.

It was possible that the sink just had a mind of its own. Right? The sink obviously didn't like me and thought I smelled, which I probably did, so it wanted to give me a shower. That made sense. Yep. Demon sinks made just about as much sense as being shunted off into a universe where your favorite anime is reality. Why the hell not? It made more sense than the alternative.

I couldn't know alchemy. I just couldn't. It was impossible. I didn't even belong here in this stupid universe, so how could I perform alchemy? It must have been a fluke. Maybe Truth was playing games with me. That bastard. Next time I saw that thing, which part of me hoped was never, I was going to kick its ass. Was that possible? I don't know.

Looking back at things now, there was a lot I didn't know.

I was still staring at the bathroom door twenty minutes later when the trio finally came back. Ed walked in the door first and looked at me with surprise. "You're still here."

I gave him a blank stare, slightly offended he would say that. "Of course I am. I can't go anywhere else. I don't remember diddily squat."

Armstrong walked in behind him, carrying the boxed-up Al on his shoulder. He plopped the box down in the same spot it had been before, and smiled at me. "How are you feeling, Miss Nova?"

If it wasn't for the fact that I knew that he called a lot of women, like Winry, by Miss, I would have thrown a fit. I couldn't stand it when people called me Miss anything, probably because Dinkleburg killed it. But, because I adored Armstrong, I let it go.

"Why are you all wet?" Al asked me, noticing my still damp state. It was an innocent question. I knew he didn't mean any harm by it, but I noticed how Ed looked at me like he was waiting for me to confess to being a criminal or something and also hit a nerve in me because the whole situation still freaked me out.

"The, uh…" Would they believe me if I said the sink did it? I guess it didn't matter. I couldn't think of anything else to say that would explain it. I could say I took a shower, but people don't shower in hospital gowns. "The sink kind of exploded. I wanted to wash the blood off but something is wrong with the faucet."

Thankfully, no one bothered to go and check the sink. I was pretty sure Ed didn't completely buy it but he didn't find me suspicious enough to feel the need to go examine the faucet, so I was thankful for that. Then it occurred to me that I had never asked about Al. Normal people found Al strange, being that he was in a suit of armor, but it was even more abnormal because now he was in a giant box. Would they find it weird that I haven't asked about it? Probably. So I asked, "Why is he… Al… Why is Al in a box?"

I noticed Ed's face go blank. Apparently he wasn't expecting me to ask about it so blatantly. "Well, he, uh… He was injured. He can't walk, but he's a big guy so he's in a box."

"Oh, okay." I wasn't surprised that he wouldn't tell me about Al's lack of a body. The injured excuse wasn't exactly reasonable, but I couldn't disprove it without looking guilty. "What am I supposed to do now?" It was a logical question. I had no idea what I was going to do now that I was here. It made the most sense that I should stick with them. But what kind of excuse could I use to get them to agree to that?

"Actually, Nova, we want you to come with us," Al started to say. Well, that was simple. Problem solved. "Colonel Mustang is our commanding officer, and he thinks it would be a good idea if you tagged along. You don't have anywhere else to go or anything, and we travel a lot so we might come across something you find familiar."

Thank you, Roy Mustang. I always liked that guy. He had just solved my problem and he didn't even know it. "So I'll go with you?" I tried to make it sound like I was iffy on the idea so it wouldn't seem like I was too eager. "It makes sense. Is he coming, too?" I asked, pointing at Major Armstrong.

The big man nodded. "I will be joining you and the brothers for a brief period, until Ed can get his arm fixed."

I smiled, trying to look as innocent as I possibly could. "Then it's settled. Can we leave soon, then? I don't like not knowing who I am, and I would like to get my memory back as soon as possible." It wasn't a complete lie. I did hate the fact that I was so out of the loop in everything, and I wanted to figure out why the hell I was here and how I could get back quickly. "But I'm going to need new clothes before I can go anywhere."

"We can pick up some things for you before we leave Central." If Al could smile, I swear he was right now. He seemed genuinely excited that I would be going with them. Ed, on the other hand, seemed more than a little annoyed.

"Hey, Ed?"

"What?"

"What happened to your arm?"

* * *

Sorry this chapter took so long to get up. I had wanted to get it up by Tuesday, but my aunt died last Friday so we had funeral stuff going on all week. It's been a long and kind of strange week so this took a bit longer than I had wanted. But everything is finished and I'm just glad this chapter is finally up! I hope you all enjoy! Don't forget to review :D I love reviews.


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